The Beer Nut: Watermelon is the seed to success

Thursday

The 21st Amendment puts two of its beers on Massachusetts store shelves.

The 21st Amendment was an important milestone for brewers: It repealed Prohibition, allowing beer and other alcoholic beverages to once again to be legally sold in the United States.

When trying to decide what to name their San Francisco brewpub in 2000, Nicco Freccia and Shaun O'Sullivan thought The 21st Amendment would be the perfect name.

"We wanted to get back to the essence of the American spirit - pre-Prohibition - of we can get things done," said Freccia, who originally hails from Concord, Mass.

Now, nine years later, 21st Amendment Brewery beers have made their way to the East Coast.

The brewery only sells two beers outside of their brewpub - the Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer and Brew Free! Or Die IPA.

"The watermelon wheat is the No. 1 selling beer at the pub during the summer," Freccia said. "The IPA, for the locals, has become a cult favorite."

The watermelon wheat has the potential to be a top summer beer. It's a lighter beer - perfect for summer - and watermelon just seems to be the perfect summertime snack.

The Hell or High Watermelon Wheat Beer began as Freccia's homebrew recipe. Freccia said he was inspired by an apricot beer brewed by a local brewer, so he tried to figure out a way to use a fruit he hadn't seen in a beer.

Watermelon was his choice, although he was concerned about the amount of water the fruit had it in, and how it would affect the taste.

"I didn't know if it was going to work," said Freccia. "I just took a (expletive) ton of watermelon and stuck it in there, and the yeast really liked the watermelon sugar. It really gobbled it up. It wasn't sweet at all - it tasted like beer. It had a really refreshing crisp finish, but you got the watermelon kiss in the finish."

O'Sullivan, who is the head brewer, tried the beer and loved it, Freccia said. However, he thought it would be impossible to brew enough at the brewpub just because of how much watermelon was needed.

But a few months later, O'Sullivan changed his mind, and the pair gave it a shot. They ordered 40 cases of watermelon and spent hours cutting them open, removing the meat and turning it into puree and then trying to reproduce the beer, and it worked.

When they recently started brewing their beer for sales outside the brewpub, they needed to find a brewery with the capacity to make enough beer to ship to customers across the country. They didn't want to start their own, so they searched for a brewery that would allow them to use fresh watermelon.

"We had to find a brewery that we could say, 'Here's the hops we use, here's the malts we use, and we have to bring in our own fresh watermelon concentrate and our own yeast.' A lot of breweries did not want to deal with the fruit," Freccia said.

They settled on a deal with Cold Spring Brewery in Cold Spring, Minn. The brewery also produces energy drinks.

"It's a home run for us," said Freccia. "They've got the capacity, and they've got a location where we can ship to both sides of the country."

Although I think the watermelon wheat will be the more popular beer, the Brew Free! or Die India Pale Ale is the better beer.

It's a good, solid IPA. They use six different hops to produce a beer that has both some bitterness and hop flavor. The slightly sweet finish is a good balance to the bitterness. At 7 percent alcohol by volume, there is also some heftiness to it.

The 21st Amendment beers have joined the ever-growing ranks of craft breweries that put their beers in cans. I love this trend cans take up less room in the fridge and just seem to be handier.

O'Sullivan had to convince Freccia that cans were the way to go over bottles.

"Shaun came in about three years ago and said, 'What do you think about putting the beer in cans,"' he said. "I said, 'That's the stupidest idea you've ever had. Why would we do that?"'

O'Sullivan then told Freccia about the advantage of cans. They are lighter, have less head space inside so there's less chance oxygen will spoil the beer, they are recycled more often and at more locations, and golf courses and beaches often will allow cans but not glass bottles.

"The more Shaun was talking about it, the more I thought it would be a great idea," Freccia said.

Freccia said 21st Amendment is now collaborating with De Struise, a great Belgian brewery, to make a dark Belgian ale that has 8.5 percent alcohol by volume. But there's a twist it will have a lot of West Coast hops, which aren't typically used in Belgium.

"Our plan was we wanted to do another beer in a can, but we wanted to figure out what we could really do to blow peoples' doors off," said Freccia. "There are a lot of pale ales in cans, but this is a dark, strong Belgian beer that will be in a can. You never see that."

21st Amendment beers are available at Fifth Avenue Liquors in Framingham, Hickey's Liquors in Milford, Julio's in Westborough, Austin Liquors in Shrewsbury, Whole Foods in Wayland, Gordon's Liquors in Waltham and Marty's Liquors in Newton.